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Archives for October 2016

Hi there! In the spirit of knocking on the doors of strangers and looking like a fool for candy, I wanted to say a couple things.

1. If you signed up to get emails from me and haven’t been getting them, it’s not you, it’s me. A couple people even told me they weren’t seeing my emails and I thought that was just them being un-tech-savvy or having an extra hungry spam filter on their inbox, but no. It was me. I paused my feed and didn’t even know it. Because that is the sort of genius I am. Hopefully things will be back to normal but feel free to tell me otherwise.

2. If you were wondering why I slowed my posting in recent months and was worried I was going away, rest assured, I’m not. You can’t get rid of me that easy! You can, however, expect that I’m feeling like a dinosaur these days trying to keep up with all the new fangled ways to be a blogger and this ever expanding constellation of internet opportunities. Two years ago the scene was very different and everyone kept their content on their blog and everyone got paid a healthy a mount of ad revenue…but now people pay attention to other stuff. And even for folks with great numbers say the ad networks pay rates are a fraction of what they were, sites are shuttering left and right, and now I get emails everyday from 17 years olds wanting to know if I’ll hire them to snapchat for me. This is what it has come to? I hardly even know what a snapchat is, but it sounds like something you get from sitting around in a wet bathing suit too long, not something I want to pay teenagers to do for me. But you have to admire the Millennial gumption, right? Errr…right.

Like I said, I’m officially a dinosaur.

I keep thinking WHY CAN’T I JUST MAKE STUFF AND POST PRETTY PICTURES…which is equally spoiled and lazy, and why you will find me on Instagram a lot more often. It’s mostly pretty pictures. And people are nice. That has not been my experience across all social media platforms. At all. Especially this week. I don’t know about you, but I find myself dreading Facebook the week before every election. This year is particularly bad. It squeezes all the weird juice and stuff gets ugly. Fast. We are all capable of producing weird juice, but something about Facebook and an election season brings it out in a big way. Suddenly your nice neighbor and your third cousin stop posting about sports and baby pictures and replace it with political rants and conspiracy theories AND NOBODY CAN BE RIGHT ABOUT ANYTHING BUT THEM. Want to see grown men and women get into a fight over something they already agree about? Chances are it’s going on Facebook right now.

Anyway. I digress. This post is sounded like me making up excuses for keeping my head in the sand (<it is totally that) but I wanted to show you around what I have been up to here. Ill tell you: flowers!

Yes indeed, it is all flowers, all the time. A friend of mine was speculating that my compulsion to make flowers is some sort of attempt to offset the ugliness in the world right now, and although it is not intentional, I think she might be sorta right. When you work alone you start feel like the radio is your friend. Nobody complains to me about office politics or what their kid refused to eat for dinner last night…instead the radio tells me that someone got shot, someone got beheaded, and a bunch of folks got crushed in an earthquake. And that was just this morning. Anyway. I’m trying to shift my focus to podcaasts and audiobooks (recommendations welcome!)

Most mornings I wake up early and work on stuff for graphic design clients, but then head over to the studio in the afternoon. Painting is a gift and a blessing. As much as I enjoy it, what it does for my mental health is unmeasurable. It untangles my brain. Not only does that help me feel better, I’m more productive with my other non-painting time. Years ago I thought of painting as a luxury that was only allowed after work was done and the house was tidy…now I see painting like I see taking a shower. It’s just something that gets done every day, regardless of what else is going on. It can take very little time, but if it doesn’t happen, I start to feel it. And if I let it go more than a couple days, others around me start to feel it too. I’m not a nice person when I don’t paint!

But, I’m also still crafting. This is my latest. Tassel topped pumpkins.

You won’t see a tutorial because I stole this ice a from Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Also, it’s pretty easy to figure on your end – just wrap the stem in yarn and add some tassels. I’m using tassels leftover from last years Granny Christmas tree, but there might be a good tutorial on that somewhere (ahem).

The skeletons are still up. Still looking like pole dancers. Again, one of those things that wasn’t intentional, but I’m okay with it. Don’t ask the neighbors. Speaking of neighbors…story time!

When I was a kid there was this one house in the neighborhood who handed out full size Snickers bars on Halloween. It wasn’t the fanciest house in town, and nobody knew anything much about the people who lived inside, but everyone knew that was “the house with the full size Snickers” and the words were spoken in whispers with reverence. Well, folks. It took me 30 something years to get there, but today is the day I am the house with full size Snickers AND DON’T IT FEEL GOOD.

Hashtag: life goals.

Other stuff going on: Back to painting –I just launched an art sale. Mostly big canvases that have been in the works for months. But also some prints of previously sold work, like this one “Tea for Mrs. Norris” who now lives with Kristin in Canada.

I had to crop in slightly to accommodate standard frame sizes, but you can buy her now as a print called”Cookies for Mrs. Norris.”

Use code LOLA20 for 20% off this week. I also have a real website just for my art. Woot! Look who is adulting now?

Got to run. The Trick-or Treaters around here start mercilessly early. Happy Halloween to you and yours!

October 1 has come and gone which means it’s full throttle on the Halloween decorations. Amiright?

In years past I have settled for some pumpkins and spider webs but this year I wanted something a little more substantial. Something spooky. Something…skeletal.

Isn’t it weird how he looks like he is dancing and laughing?

If I had come back from the dead as a skeleton and some broad wired me to a column, I would not be laughing. Or dancing.

Like I said – spooky. And it gets better – there are three of them.

This guy is my favorite. I rigged his hand so it looks like he is waving. But sometimes the hand flops over and it looks like he’s asking for money. ]

Leave it to me get a greedy skeleton.

I know you are looking at this and wondering how they stay up. Honestly, they stay up on their own. I added some floral wire to keep them in place through wind and rain, but these skeletons are opposable. The joints move and lock into place. Actually, lock is a strong word – more like click. They click into place. So long as the feet and hips are set up sturdy they hold just about any position.

Also. You like the wreaths?

Confession: The truth is this post was supposed to be about wreaths. I went to Michaels and bought a bunch of fall foliage and gourds and wreath forms and a couple friends and I sat on the porch and made fall wreaths and drank wine and ate dip and I took a ton of photos. I thought a wreath making party was a clever idea, isn’t it? Yeah I know!

But you know what’s not so clever? Dropping your phone in the sink the next day. Photos gone. This sink situation also happened to be the day the new iPhone launched so, getting anyone to repair or replace the phone was nearly impossible. I’m still waiting on delievery. So this is my way of saying, if you have called or texted me in the last two weeks, I probably didn’t get it. This is also my way of saying I cannot show you how to make these wreaths step-by-step, but I promise you can get all the supplies at Michaels. You can also pick up an opposable skeleton while you are there. And that’s the cool part.

What sort of Halloween craftiness are you thinking about this year? If you make anything fun and share it on social media please tag me – I would love to see it! And if you get the supplies at Michaels, tag them too because they love that stuff! Whether you’re into spooky sights, playful pumpkins or giggling ghouls, Michaels is your Boo-It-Yourself Halloween Headquarters and has tons of ideas for DIY costumes and décor.